What can social game designers learn from games played for real money? AJ Glasser of Inside Social Games attended the Global iGaming Summit last week and pondered that very same question. Glasser notes that the two platforms are (perhaps inexorably) coming together, though they’re not without their differences:

A social games player wants to feel a sense of progress (e.g. levels, high scores, etc.) and perhaps community whereas a real money player wants to win money and possibly renown, as gambling culture in the West glamorizes high stakes players. Each audience has different needs and meeting those of one could alienate the other. For example, a social game might adjust its difficulty level to keep a game engaging to a less skilled player — like an arcade game where the puzzle changes if a user fails a level a certain number of times. A real-money casino game would never adjust the odds of a game no matter how bad a player’s losing (or winning) streak is, not only because it would unbalance the game but because it would illegal in regulated markets.